The starting gun for the race for Christmas number one has been fired in the books world as new cookbooks from Jamie and Nigella and new titles from both JK Rowling and Salman Rushdie are readied for publication as well as autobiographies from Olympic golden girls Clare Balding and – prepared at properly athletic pace – Jessica Ennis.
Two hundred-and-seventeen new hardbacks are set for release today, more than three times the daily average, from Justin Bieber's "backstage peek at life behind the scenes", Just Getting Started, to television presenter Balding's memoir My Animals and Other Family. As publishers rush to land a slice of the lucrative Christmas market, also out today are Lawson's Italian cookbook Nigellissima, cyclist Victoria Pendleton's autobiography Between the Lines, Nigel Slater's second volume of his Kitchen Diaries and new novels from Terry Pratchett, Marian Keyes and Martina Cole. Rushdie's memoir Joseph Anton is published on 18 September.
"Tomorrow is huge, and 27 September will be big purely because the new Jamie and new JK Rowling [her first adult novel The Casual Vacancy] will be hitting shelves on the same day. Many other publishers have brought stuff forward to get out of their way – which is perhaps why Thursday looks so strong," said Philip Stone, charts editor at the Bookseller, who is tipping titles including Balding's memoir, Bear Grylls' Survival Guide and William Shawcross's collection of the late Queen Mother's letters as potential surprise hits this Christmas.
"For about three weeks, lots and lots of books will be published," said Andre Breedt from book sales monitor Nielsen BookScan. "Most people aim to get their books out before mid-October at the latest, and there are more than 200 hardbacks published today."
"We deliberately went as soon after the Olympics as possible because we knew the timing would be great," said Joel Rickett, who is Balding's editor at Penguin. "We wanted September because October has been such a crowded time over the last couple of years."
Philip Pullman's take on the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and memoirs from unlikely colleagues Jessie J, Chinua Achebe, Tulisa Contostavlos and Jack Straw will also be jostling for place on 27 September, but the Bookseller is dubbing 11 October as "Super Thursday" – the annual day when the majority of potential Christmas bestsellers are released. Last year it fell on 29 September, and hardback sales went up by 35% week on week.
"Thursday 11th October looks, frankly, ridiculous," said Stone. "There's a huge volume of titles by some of the most bankable brands in the industry – Kate Morton, Jo Nesbo, Harlan Coben, Maeve Binchy, Andy McNab – plus a whole load of celebrities: Paul O'Grady, Cheryl Cole, Olly Murs, Miranda Hart, Rod Stewart." The day will also see the release of memoirs from David Mitchell, Will Young and David Walliams, while a just-announced memoir from Olympic medallist Ennis is due on 8 November. In total, 232 hardbacks are listed for publication on 11 October, according to Nielsen BookScan. Preceding that, another 231 are due out on 27th September as well as today's 217.
The Christmas market is increasingly competitive, said Rickett, who has 33 events lined up for his author from tonight, including an appearance on Jonathan Ross at the weekend alongside Bieber. "There is such competition for slots [in the bookshops], and there will be a lot of books around for which publishers paid a large amount and which aren't even going to get a display slot."
By December, however, the best books will have risen to the top, Rickett predicted. "When you're getting in to December, of course retailers want things which are backed by publishers but they also want the books which have really chimed with readers. So things will have shaken down."
